


it makes him unsettled

by mutantish



Category: Bandom, Cobra Starship, The Academy Is...
Genre: M/M, That's right - in the British education system, because where else would I put them?, sixth form AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-24
Updated: 2014-05-24
Packaged: 2018-01-26 08:34:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1681781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mutantish/pseuds/mutantish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You’re catching flies, Gabriel,” Ryland whispers in his alter-ego-persona-person-thing Guy Ripley’s voice, and Gabe has to physically force himself to shut his mouth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	it makes him unsettled

**Author's Note:**

> title credit to beggars by mallory knox

“This is not some twisted universe in which we are Danny and Sandy, Bill.”

The second the words slip out of Gabe’s mouth, he regrets them. They’d only been talking about Grease, and William had said “I think I would be a bit mad if I came back after a summer and you didn’t wanna know me? Like,” and Gabe had cut in. He knows instantly what’s going to happen, he can see it now. William orchestrating a weird-ass scene from Grease, just to prove him wrong, just to make a scene and just to make Gabe blush, something William is expert in, whether he notices it or not.

(They’ve been circling each other since the start of the school year, and it’s getting to the point where it’s driving Gabe mad. He knows both their friend groups laugh at them from other sides of the common room, but Gabe doesn’t know if William even likes him in that way, and he sure as hell isn’t going to be the one to make the first move.)

 “Fine,” William jumps up from his seat at their table before leaning into Gabe and whispering in his ear, “I’ll show you,” and he’s pretty sure William doesn’t miss the way Gabe’s pupils dilate.  _Oh fucking hell_. Only he, at such a close proximity, can see it. Gabe hopes he puts it down to the heat of the room that’s just gone up by like, three million percent. Or, maybe it’s the lack of sunlight coming in through the blinds. Yeah, that makes more sense. Right. Ha-ha.

“Yeah, sure, Bilvy. Sure.”

William scoffs in his face and turns on his heel, ignoring is group of friends as he walks out, actually storms out of the common room like he’s twelve years old or something, not eighteen. Gabe is a little shocked. That was not the reaction he had been expecting.

Gabe returns to the table where Ryland and Victoria are sat, ignorance for the weird butterflies doing backwards lap racing in his stomach. William is going to make Gabe squirm and Gabe can see it coming now.

He doesn’t see him at all for the rest of the day.

 

* * *

 

William and Gabe have been friends for a fair few years now, since the start of year seven, when they were both nerdy eleven year olds with bad hair and squeaky voices. They came from different catchment schools, Gabe from one end of the town and William the other. They’re the only connection between their two very different groups of friends. Gabe fell in with the people who took Sport and RE when he took those classes, and William chose Art, so it’s not very often that their friends really mix. Music and English became their only shared class when the school split into set classes.

They’re in year thirteen now, their last year, and it’s coming towards the end of the year. It’s their last school year, before they hop off the school bus and walk into their futures without a second glance backwards (and Gabe is so fucking terrified that he won’t see William again).

 

* * *

 

 

“No. Fucking. Way. No fucking way, oh my god,” Ryland is practically climbing over him to get a better look at who’s coming across the school grounds. They’re sat out on the small patch of grass outside the Science block, doing their work for lessons. Gabe protests, but Ryland is slightly taller and stronger than he is, and he has no respect for personal space. Gabe is shoved out of the way as Ryland clambers over him to look. “You are so fucked, Saporta.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Gabe leans backwards to look, but he doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary. A bunch of year twelve students messing around on the field during their free period, someone climbing the roof of the Art block to get their shoe back, but nothing that he doesn’t see at least every day. “There’s nothing over there, what bullshit are you talking now, Ry?”

“Lower block, on your left,” Ryland says, and Gabe spins around.

And,  _oh. My. Fucking. God_.

William Beckett has just walked out of the sixth form common room, except Gabe has to take a moment to wonder if it’s really him. He’s cut all his hair off, so it’s short. It’s not to the bone short, but it’s above his ears and a little longer on top, pushed away off his face. It’s a drastic change, and Gabe is speechless. He’s not wearing his usual combination of a band-no-one’s-heard-of-t-shirt and light jeans; he’s wearing snugly-fitting black trousers, a white shirt and black leather. Gabe’s mouth hangs open a little bit. Oh, fuck.

“You’re catching flies, Gabriel,” Ryland whispers in his alter-ego-persona-person-thing Guy Ripley’s voice, and Gabe has to physically force himself to shut his mouth.

William glances over and they lock gazes, and Gabe’s stomach falls out of his body. The smirk on his face that looks triumphant. That is so not what Gabe meant, that is not what he meant at all. He certainly feels like he’s a part of the cast of Grease, and William has just gone through the whole scene where Sandy gets all dolled up to prove something to Danny (who knows what?) and Gabe is Danny, left floundering and flailing, because William looks  _hot_. And not just  _hot_  hot, like hot I would take you home right now hot. Fuck.

And it’s not like he wasn’t attractive before, he was good looking _,_ but in a dorky kind of way, in a Gabe was too infatuated to think otherwise. But now, now, now he is literally walking on fire and Gabe is so fucked because he’s walking towards them with a determined look on his face. Gabe barely has time to scramble up out of his seat and meet him half way.

 “You have got to be kidding me; don’t fuck with me, Bill, you know this isn’t what I meant –“

William grips onto the front of Gabe’s shitty fake varsity jacket, hands curling into the soft fabric. He pulls, and Gabe goes willingly, hands coming up to William’s shoulders to stop himself from stumbling or slipping on the grass. Vaguely, Gabe can make out the indistinct shouts coming from Ryland and Nate, but only barely, over the thumping of the blood rushing through his body. William pauses, apprehension in his eyes. Gabe knows that look.  _I’ll show you_ , he thinks, and almost laughs outright.

 “Come here you,” Gabe murmurs, his hands coming up to cup William’s face, and William laughs breathlessly, giddily, before leaning in and pressing his mouth to Gabe’s, who melts like butter in a hot pan and nearly misses containing a whimper of relief, of  _thank fucking finally_

They stay like that for a few minutes, glued together at the mouth and Gabe can only pull away when Victoria wolf-whistles and he can’t stop the laughter that escapes him, William burying his head in Gabe’s neck as he shakes too.

“All this time we spent, circling each other like, I don't know, animals or something and you just. You thought it would take cutting your hair to get me to notice you? Like this?” Gabe murmurs into the top of William’s head, his hands wrapping around his waist. “Don’t be silly, Bilvy, I’ll always like you,”

“You could’ve told me that before I cut my hair off,” William turns slightly and punches Gabe in the stomach, not enough to hurt but enough for Gabe to jerk away a little bit. William just pulls him back in. Gabe grins, arms tightening.

The bell rings, and students start leaving classrooms and buildings, and Victoria joins them with a devilish grin, and Sisky finds his way over, and soon they’ve melted into one group of sixth formers.

William grins up at Gabe, and Gabe makes a face.

William laughs, and Gabe has never heard a sweeter sound.

**Author's Note:**

> this started out as a different fic entirely (that i might write some day idk) and ending up as me just lying across my keyboard and needing to get it out and post it before actually fixing it up. oh well.
> 
> and also, bandom sixth form au? yes please, there needs to be more of them.


End file.
